I've hated the new tire rules (one set of tires for the whole race weekend) in F1 since their announcement last year. The excuse for this stupid rule was safety (the F1 rule makers can short circuit the rule approval process in the name of safety.) The idea being, that the new super durable tires would be slower, and thus safer. What it did was kill any excitement in the practice or qualifying sections because teams were afraid of ruining their tires for the race day. That was bad enough, but perversely the new tire rules also greatly reduced safety in the sport. You can change a tire if it is clearly unsafe, but who determines that it is unsafe? Obviously a flat is unsafe, but what about a flat-spotted tire? A few weeks ago Kimi Raikkonen was put in this sticky position... he had a flat spotted tire, but could not stop for a replacement because he could be disqualified if the stewards did not agreee that it was clearly unsafe. With one lap to go his front suspension failed from the tire vibrations causing a spectacular crash. In any previous year this would have been avoided with a tire change. Now we get this weekend. All I can say is that I'm glad I didn't make a trip to Indy to see the race. During practice it was found (the hard way by Ralf Schumaker, hitting the wall again) that the Michelin tires were not up to taking the banking in turn 13. The vertical loads induced by the banking were high enough to cause tire ruptures. The cars are doing in excess of 200mph, so this is a huge safety problem. For legal reasons Michelin informed their teams that they would not sanction their use in the race. That meant the Michelin teams had no real choice but to park their cars... if there was an accident they could be sued into oblivion. There was the option of changing the course layout (adding a chicane to slow down the cars in turn 13) but the FIA would not accept this idea. So only the 6 Bridgestone cars took the track, 2 Ferraris, 2 Jordans and 2 Minardis... The Jordans and Minardis are so slow they are effectively rolling speed bumps, so it's not even a 6 car race. The only good that can come out of this is that FIA and FOM heads will roll. The rules need to change and the heads of the sport have proven that they don't have the brains between them to make it happen. Good job, assholes. Better leave the race track early... there are 140,000 disgruntled fans in the stands. PS: Hey, Michael (Schumaker), I'm a big fan, but can you try not to be a complete asshole... it's not even a race! Did you have to force your own fucking teammate off the road?